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Topic: Plastic/ glass bottles (Read 719 times)

Hey guys, I'm working on my sixth or seventh brew and have been using plastic bottles to begin with. In talking with a customer at work (he came in with a Brooklyn Brewery T-shirt on so it wasn't hard to start up a conversation) he said he had bottles of their Imperial Stout aging for about 10 yrs. He said if beers have yeast in the bottle they will continue to age for years saying this is how craft brewers got around NC's ABV laws in the 90s and 2000s. That got me to thinking I would take a few beers from each batch and save them as long as possible, in my 60 to 65 degree crawl space, before the urge overcame me to drink them. So I have 2 questions, is it better/safer to bottle in glass if I want to keep them for a long time and what are the pros and cons of plastic bottling.Bob

I believe that plastic can still allow a tiny amount of oxygen ingress so maybe glass would be better. I'd also worry that this temp was a touch high for aging but I don't age so I will let others confirm or refute that.

My biggest question is, what style of beer? Some age well and improve, others gain nothing from aging and you are sort of wasting beer that would be best enjoyed fresh. Big, high alcohol, big flavour beers age well. I wouldn't bother to age a Kolsch or an APA for years though. Just my opinion though.

This styles would be best consumed fresh. I suppose if you wanted to age for experimental reasons you could but you'll lose the hop presence with time for sure

+1. Save some if you want to see what they are like but enjoy them when they are fresh is my advice. If you want to cellar something, make a big stout (not really harder than a regular stout, just needs more ingredients and put some of that away until the winter or beyond.